The Biggest Seattle Mariners Collection on Earth

James Stinger has 52,000 Unique Mariners Cards

If James Stinger had his own baseball card, his collecting statistics on the back would be eye-popping.

They would read that he owns:

• 52,201 unique Seattle Mariners cards
• 4,700 different Ken Griffey Jr. Mariners cards
• 1,095 1-of-1 Mariners cards
• 125 binders filled with cards
• 120 autographed baseballs
• 50 game-used/player model bats
• 25-30 player jerseys

Stinger’s Mariners collection is perhaps second to none.

He enjoys displaying his pieces in his basement, where two seven-foot-tall cases hold 500 of his most treasured cards.

“The rest of the room, the wall space is all signed photos, jerseys,” Stinger said. “I have three more smaller display cases with sort of the nicest game-used memorabilia, shelves of baseballs, a pile of bats, because they’re really hard to display. Most of those are game-used bats and a few player models that are signed.”

Stinger, who lives just outside Seattle, has a historian’s mindset when it comes to his Mariners collection.

“For me, I’m telling a story of the team,” said the 41-year-old. “From the very beginning, I was always drawn to the history of baseball, and this is a way I can do that with my local team in the place that I’m at a lot during the year. I’m a season ticket holder. I actually worked for the team for several years. It’s sort of a way to keep that connection when I’m not at the ballpark, when I’m not specifically watching the game.”

Collecting The Kid

When Stinger began collecting at the age of 6, his mission was to hand-collate sets; he enjoyed learning about the players by reading the backs of their cards.

Two years into his collecting journey, Stinger had the idea of focusing on Mariners players. In 1991, one young player really caught his eye: Ken Griffey Jr. Stinger began his lifelong project of collecting “The Kid.”

“He was such an interesting and, obviously, great player, and exciting,” Stinger said. “The Mariners didn’t exactly have a lot of star power then. As excited as I was to collect all the Mariners, Griffey was just such a different beast altogether.”

Stinger’s Griffey collection has reached 4,700 unique cards from solely his Mariners playing days. Stinger has a few Griffey cards from his stints with the Cincinnati Reds and Chicago White Sox, but he doesn’t actively buy those.

His favorite Griffey is the 1989 Topps Tiffany. Also at the top is the 2016 Allen & Ginter Mini Framed Autograph, Black, numbered to 25. Stinger acquired that card during a case break that was held the night before Griffey was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2016. Rounding out Stinger’s top three Griffey cards is a 2020 Topps Seattle Children’s Hospital autograph. The set—in which Stinger pulled a rare auto—was available at a local drug store to raise money for Seattle Children’s Hospital.

Stinger’s top Mariners card not named Griffey is an Edgar Martinez 1998 Bowman Chrome Golden Anniversary Refractor numbered to 5.

“I’m a sucker for any of the old refractors,” Stinger said. “I’ve never gotten my hands on a 1993 Finest Griffey, but I’ve the ’94 Finest refractor. I love anything with just ridiculous color schemes, and that is bright green with a giant red and yellow circle behind it.”

The centerpiece of Stinger’s collection is a champagne bottle that was popped open during the clubhouse celebration when the Mariners won their first division title in 1995. The bottle is signed by the entire team. That piece of memorabilia means everything to Stinger.

“It’s one of the first things I would grab if there were a fire,” he said. “I know there’s probably nothing else like it. It was actually one of the players who got it signed for himself and then eventually decided to sell it. I can’t imagine a lot of the guys did that.

“That game is what saved baseball in this city. We were just on the very edge of losing them to Tampa. That would have altered the course of so many things, including my own life. That’s part of just a huge moment here.”

Collecting All the M’s

Stinger’s overall Mariners’ card collection reached 52,021 different cards just days before 2025 Topps Series 1 baseball was released on February 12.

Stinger owns every Mariners Topps Flagship card that’s ever been released during the franchise’s 48-year history.

Along with retired favorites Griffey and Martinez, Stinger really loves to collect active Mariners players. J.P. Crawford is tops on that list.

“I’m a big fan of anybody with flair and that just has child-like fun out there,” Stinger said. “That’s what it’s all about.”

Stinger recently finished a rainbow of Crawford’s 2024 Stadium Club in both Chrome and paper. His pair of Superfractors to complete the rainbow are two of his 1,095 Mariners 1-of-1 cards.

Stinger enjoys working on Mariners side projects within his collection.

“Otherwise, there is too much,” he said. “I would lose my mind.”

Stinger is a big collector of hometown favorite Julio Rodriguez, folk hero Cal Raleigh, and the team’s young pitching staff, led by George Kirby.

Stinger isn’t missing many desired cards from his massive Mariners collection. However, one big card he hasn’t purchased that is on his want list is Rodriguez’s 2019 Bowman Chrome Prospects Auto.

With Stinger’s collection exceeding 52,000 unique Mariners cards, that’s just another card at this point. Stinger stops in his tracks sometimes when thinking about how large his collection has become.

“Every so often, I’ll see something I posted about where I was X amount of years ago,” Stinger said. “On Beckett’s website, my username is my initials and how many cards I had when I signed up in the late ’90s. It was JS 2700. If you had told me my collection was 20 times its size now, it’s just wild to me.”

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